Digital bus interfaces are used to communicate data between components within an electronic device, such as a computer, a radio frequency (RF) front-end module, a cellular telephone, a tablet, a camera, and/or the like. The digital bus interface generally includes at least one master bus controller and one or more slave bus controllers. The master bus controller(s) and the slave bus controller(s) are connected by bus lines, and the master bus controller coordinates the transfer of data along the bus lines. The slave bus controllers perform commands (e.g., read and write commands) as coordinated by the master bus controller. If more than one master bus controller is provided, a bus arbitration scheme is generally implemented to negotiate between the various master bus controllers. The bus lines that connect the master bus controller(s) to the slave bus controllers typically include one or more data, power, and clock bus lines. Generally, the size of the digital bus interface increases as more bus lines are provided in the digital bus interface. The increase is due to the number of wires which must be routed between the bus controllers and the number of pins for the bus controllers that must be dedicated to the bus lines. In modern communication systems, the area available for pins and wires is minimal.
Therefore, digital bus interface designs that utilize fewer bus lines are needed.